Emily Henderson didn’t plan to be a television personality. In fact, when the now HGTV star first moved to Los Angeles, it was so her husband could pursue his acting career.

Now, after winning Season Five of HGTV’s Design Star, she hosts her own show on the network called Secrets From a Stylist. This week, she was in Nashville at the CMA Music Festival.

Her fun started on Thursday when she competed in the White Box Challenge. A standard task on Design Star, the contestants have a set time limit and a limited amount of money to turn a completely white room into a colorful design masterpiece. During Henderson’s season, she had seven hours and $500 to shop at a Chinese import store. “I particularly failed at that challenge,” Henderson said.

So as she headed to Nashville for Thursday’s task — where she had three hours to design the space based on the Taylor Swift song “Today Is a Fairy Tale” in front of a crowd of gaping fans — she was understandably nervous.

“My first reaction was nausea,” she said with a laugh.

Of course, she had several weeks to mentally prep and someone building pieces for the room beforehand, so she pulled it off beautifully. The rest of the week —when she wasn’t signing autographs —she was enjoying the Music City scene.

In Nashville, she went to two of the nightly concerts at LP Field, hung at Tootsie’s and Legends Corner, and “stayed at Second Fiddle for hours.”

“I love country music culture,” she said. “but I live in L.A. and it’s not there. If there was a two-step place in L.A., I would go.”

Country music aside, fans can continue to catch Henderson on TV. She just signed a contract for 26 more episodes. Need more style tips? She also blogs at www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com.

“I never thought I should be on TV,” she said. “I tried out for Design Star because I wanted to see a show that was more my style. Now, I love it so much I can’t imagine doing anything else.”